James B. Pearson on the campaign trail in the 1960s.

Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 34 (Winter 2011–2012): 296–315

296 Kansas History Man in the Middle: The Career of Senator James B. Pearson

by Frederick D. Seaton

n a warm afternoon in June 1969, Senator James B. Pearson retreated to his office in the New Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, taking a stack of papers and books with him. When he emerged two hours later, he had made up his mind to oppose one of President Richard M. Nixon’s most controversial national security programs, the Safeguard anti-ballistic missile system. A Republican senator from Kansas might be expected to go along with his president on such a matter. A moderate conservative, Pearson had served on the Armed Services OCommittee and was friendly with some of the Senate’s leading Cold War hawks. But Pearson was in the Senate because he had successfully challenged conventional thinking in his party back home. In the middle of his first full term he was about to step into a heated debate over President Nixon’s strategic arms policies, a debate in which most of his allies would be Democrats or liberal Republicans. He would try to persuade his constituents to agree with him that opposition to the construction and deployment of Safeguard was justified on the basis of “the necessity, the cost, the effect upon both the arms race and arms limitation negotiations.” He understood this would be difficult. The quiet, adopted Kansan did not rely on staff, consultants, or lobbyists to do his thinking for him, especially on an issue of this magnitude. He did it himself, weighing the political risks by his own lights.1

Frederick D. “Dave” Seaton is chairman of the Winfield Publishing Company. He was the press secretary and a legislative aide to Senator Pearson from 1969 through 1974. Seaton is the author of “The Long Road to the Right Thing to Do: The Troubled History of Winfield State Hospital,” an article inKansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 27 (Winter 2004–2005).

The author acknowledges with gratitude the participation of oral historian Professor Tom Lewin of the University of Kansas, Lawrence, in several interviews for this article.

1. James B. Pearson to Rev. Herman Johnson, North Newton, Kansas, August 28, 1969, General, 1969, box 69, folder 24, “Leg: Defense—ABM,” James B. Pearson Collection, Senatorial Papers, 1962–1978, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries, Lawrence (hereafter cited as “Pearson Papers”); “The ABM,” James B. Pearson United States Senator Reports to Kansas (senator’s newsletter to constituents) 8 (June 1969), Column and Newsletter Series, Pearson Papers. The author worked with Senator Pearson on his June 1969 newsletter on the Safeguard issue.

The Career of Senator James B. Pearson 297 ames Blackwood Pearson was born May 7, 1920, in Nashville, Tennessee, the son and grandson of Methodist ministers. Both his father and mother came from prominent middle Tennessee families. TheJ family followed his father’s assignments to churches in Missouri, Alabama, Virginia, and elsewhere in the South. These frequent moves notwithstanding, Pearson was reared in traditional southern fashion. As a child he had a black nanny, Caroline, who called him “honey chile” and refused to cut his long locks. Pearson was an independent-minded, enterprising youth, saving money from his newspaper route to buy model airplanes. He loved electric trains and built a HAM radio set that fascinated his family, according to his sister, Virginia.2 The family finally settled into a home of its own on a rural property near Lynchburg, Virginia. Later, as a United States Senator, Pearson recalled visits to his father’s study in the Lynchburg house by Virginia politicians, including Senator Carter Glass, who became secretary of the treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Perhaps no two men were more central to Senator Pearson’s meteoric Pearson attended Duke University but dropped out and rise in Kansas politics than Richard Rogers (left) and John Anderson, joined the Navy. During World War II he flew transport Jr. (right), captured together here at a 1962 campaign picnic. Pearson managed Anderson’s 1960 gubernatorial campaign, and the governor aircraft, mostly DC-3s, from coast to coast, landing appointed his friend and ally to a vacant U.S. Senate seat a year after frequently at the Olathe Naval Air Station near Kansas taking office. To Anderson’s chagrin, Pearson was never able to get City. He was discharged from the Naval Air Transport the former governor his dream job, a federal judgeship. After his final 3 failed attempt to put Anderson forward, Pearson got together with Service with the rank of lieutenant commander. Kansas’s junior senator, Bob Dole, and agreed on Manhattan attorney Pearson was attracted to the openness of mid- Richard Rogers, who had previously served as Pearson’s campaign westerners, according to his son, Bill. The Navy flier met manager, a state senator, and chairman of the Kansas Republican Party. Rogers was nominated for the U.S. District Court of Kansas Martha Mitchell, the daughter of a prosperous Kansas and confirmed during the summer of 1975. City family, at a dance on the base. James Mitchell, Martha’s father, owned a string of grain elevators across the state. The young couple married and Pearson, after Pearson was thoughtful, enjoyed serious conversation, earning a bachelor’s degree at the College of Lynchburg and had a quick sense of humor that helped make him and a law degree at the University of Virginia, settled popular among his colleagues. He was more interested down with his new family in suburban Johnson County, in issues than party politics, but found he had a knack for Kansas, where he opened a law practice in the growing the details of political campaigning. After serving as city town of Mission. Pearson was uncomfortable with attorney for three Johnson County towns, Westwood, his rather stiff and formal father-in-law, who tried to Fairway, and Lenexa, and as a probate judge, Pearson persuade Pearson to join the grain business. He refused was elected to the Kansas Senate in 1956, filling the seat and instead invested in property in Mission and pursued left open by John Anderson, Jr., of Olathe, who had been his law career.4 appointed attorney general. As a state senator Pearson involved himself in issues related to cities and towns. He 2. Virginia Green to author, July 24, 2004, author’s personal also followed his personal interests and took a seat on the collection. Industrial Development and Aeronautics Committee. He 3. “Biography,” online guide to the Pearson Papers; “James Blackwood Pearson,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, served on the Judiciary and Municipalities committees 1774–2005 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2005), and chaired the Savings and Loan Committee. Pearson available online at http://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_ item/Biographical_Directory.htm. supported reform of the process for selecting state 4. William Pearson, interview by author, Overland Park, Kansas, supreme court justices and sponsored a bill to create a January 16, 2010, author’s personal collection; Green to the author, July 24, 2004. juvenile justice code. “Pearson was always a reformer,”

298 Kansas History said Glee Smith, former Kansas Senate president who n 1960 a new generation of political leadership served with Pearson. Clifford Hope, Jr., of Garden City emerged in America. John F. Kennedy won the also served with Pearson and became a lifelong friend. presidency and youth was suddenly a strength in “While the others went to the Jayhawk [Hotel] to drink,” politics. Pearson, then forty, showed a tendency Hope said, “we would go to the movies. Of course, we to distance himself from the old guard that would drank some, too.” When Anderson, a former Johnson Icharacterize his later career in the Senate. Kansas City Star County attorney, ran for Kansas attorney general in 1958, reporter Alvin S. McCoy described Pearson as “a friendly, Pearson managed his campaign. When Anderson ran for gregarious type, who seldom irritates anyone.” McCoy governor in 1960, Pearson again managed his campaign, went on to say “the older Republicans regarded him and personally flew the candidate in a private plane to with affection, something in the manner of a wayward events across the state.5 son who may vote against them on occasion when they The two “young Turks” successfully challenged become too conservative, but who is to be forgiven his leaders of a Republican Party dominated by a generation aberrations as due to the impetuosity of youth.” This of older, mostly rural political princes. Frederick Lee kind of tolerance on the part of the old guard was less “Fred” Hall, an unorthodox progressive from Dodge City, evident when it came to Anderson, whose aggressive had won the governor’s office in 1954 with support from prosecutions and refusal to support powerful interests Democrats, opening the way for change in the Grand made him some enemies in Kansas City, Kansas, during Old Party. Among the long-time leaders challenged by his time as Johnson County attorney and later as attorney Anderson and Pearson were former Governor Edward general. Along with his image as a courageous crime F. “Ed” Arn of Wichita, senator and former Speaker of fighter, Anderson had a reputation for being unguarded the House Paul R. Wunsch of Kingman, state Senator and sometimes dilatory. These characteristics apparently Steadman Ball of Atchison, and newspaper publisher showed themselves during his 1960 campaign. In a McDill “Huck” Boyd of Phillipsburg. Harry Darby, the hint of the future relationship between the two allies, GOP kingmaker in Kansas City, Kansas, was among McCoy reported that Pearson said of Anderson, “If John them. Anderson and Pearson built a network of young, Anderson wins this nomination, he won’t owe anything progressive activists such as state Representative John to anybody—not even himself.”7 V. Glades of Yates Center, Senator Hope, and Donald P. Among the candidates Anderson defeated in the Schnacke of Topeka. By winning the governorship in 1960 Republican primary that year was Huck Boyd, the from two-term Democrat George Docking, Anderson politically active publisher of the Phillipsburg Review, a became a “giant killer” and Pearson got some of the weekly newspaper in north central Kansas. Anderson credit. The traditional Republican Party was temporarily and his “detail man” Pearson conducted a campaign shaken by the success of the two young Turks; but it that, according to McCoy, “confounded the old-line remained intact, providing both a political home and politicians with the refreshing naiveté of babes in the plenty of anxiety for Pearson during his career.6 jungles of government.”8 The outcome put Anderson and Pearson in the lead of the progressive wing of the Kansas Republican Party, which included people such 5. Kansas Senate and House Journals, January 8 to April 8, 1957, 387, 442; Glee Smith, interview by author, Winfield, Kansas, April 12, 2011, as former Governor Alfred M. “Alf” Landon and former author’s personal collection; Clifford Hope, Jr., interview by author, Congressman Clifford R. Hope, Sr., of Garden City, who Garden City, Kansas, May 25, 2009, author’s personal collection; see retired in 1957 after thirty years of service in the U.S. also Robert H. Clark, “Topeka Kickoff is Made by Anderson,” Kansas City Times, June 2, 1960; and Alvin S. McCoy, “Gold Dust Twins of House of Representatives. Anderson and Pearson won Kansas Politics,” Kansas City Times, August 4, 1960. the admiration of progressive Kansas newspaper editors 6. Anderson described himself and his allies in the Kansas State Senate as “young Turks” who challenged “patronage and political and publishers. The newspaper people especially liked deal making and cronyism.” Bob Beatty, ed., “‘For the Benefit of the People’: A Conversation with Former Governor John Anderson, Jr.,” Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 30 (Winter 2007–2008): 256. Pearson’s friend and campaign manager Richard D. Rogers did not 7. McCoy, “Gold Dust Twins of Kansas Politics,” Kansas City think Pearson had the idea of seeking high office when he came to Times, August 4, 1960; McCoy, “Pearson Learned of His Selection in a Kansas. Pearson’s son, Bill, concurred. Marjorie Day, who worked for Feedlot,” Kansas City Star, January 31, 1962. Pearson in his Mission law office, called him “a very political person.” 8. McCoy, “Gold Dust Twins of Kansas Politics,” Kansas City Times, Richard D. Rogers, interview by author, Topeka, Kansas, November 3, August 4, 1960; Secretary of State, State of Kansas, Election Statistics, 2009, author’s personal collection; William Pearson interview; Marjorie 1960, Primary and General Elections (Topeka: Secretary of State, [1960]), Day, interview with author, Winfield, Kansas, January 5, 2010, author’s 24. Anderson won with 48.7 percent of the vote; Boyd polled 44.4 personal collection. percent; and William H. Addington, 6.9 percent.

The Career of Senator James B. Pearson 299 whom he described as a politician “increasing in stature” who won “overwhelming” victories.9 Clyde M. Reed, Jr., publisher of the Parsons Sun, was Pearson’s political alter ego in southeast Kansas for two decades. Stuart Awbrey of the Hutchinson News and Whitley Austin of the Salina Journal were also strong Pearson supporters. Following Anderson’s victory in 1960, Pearson was elected chairman of the state Republican Party. He relinquished the position within a few months, but used it to solidify his relationships with county GOP activists. When U.S. Senator Andrew Schoeppel died in late 1961, Anderson appointed Pearson to fill the seat. Rumors of a “barnyard deal,” in which Pearson would step aside later in 1962 to let Anderson seek election to the office, were false according to both men. Pearson was appointed “without any type of condition,” Anderson insisted. He told McCoy that he wanted to seek a second term as governor to carry out his programs and that his family did not want to move to Washington, DC. “There was no barnyard deal,” said Pearson.10 When he was sworn in as a United States senator on February 5, 1962, Pearson was still a new face in the Kansas Republican Party. In August of that year he had to run for his seat in the Republican primary. Assigned as a freshman to lesser committees, Interior and Gov- ernment Operations, Pearson voted as a midwestern conservative, following the leadership of his own minority party. Indeed, Pearson spent his whole Senate A Garden City attorney and son of a long-time Republican con- career in the minority. The young Kansan opposed much gressmen, Clifford Hope, Jr., was first elected to the Kansas Senate in 1956, the year his father chose not to seek a sixteenth term in the of President John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier legislation U.S. House of Representatives. After an unsuccessful 1958 bid for his and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. father’s old southwest Kansas seat in the U.S. Congress, Cliff Hope, Pearson voted for legislation supported by Democratic Jr., continued his service in the state senate and easily won a second presidents less frequently than did Kansas’s senior four-year term in 1960. Hope, a friend and former legislative colleague of Pearson’s, managed the senator’s successful primary and general Republican senator, Frank Carlson. When Soviet missiles election campaigns in 1962. In December of that year, Hope resigned were discovered in Cuba, Pearson criticized Kennedy for from the state senate after accepting a position as manager of Senator having let U.S. policy towards Cuba “wither on the vine.” Pearson’s Wichita office. Pearson voted against Medicare and said he would do it again.11 In addition to his floor duties, Pearson kept

Pearson’s droll, self-deprecating humor. He liked to tell 9. See, for example, Ray Morgan, “Pearson Says He is in Race,” Kansas City Star, January 27, 1966; Morgan, “GOP Cheers Pearson,” the story, for example, of meeting a farmer in Bourbon Kansas City Star, January 30, 1972; see also Bob Woody and other County after a speech he had given on foreign policy. “I former members of Pearson’s Washington staff, interview by author, Washington, DC, April 10, 2005, author’s personal collection. Woody, don’t know nothing about foreign policy,” said the farmer. a Pearson appointee to the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee, “I don’t know anything about farming,” Pearson replied. told the Bourbon County farmer story. “We got along fine.” An avid newspaper reader, Pearson 10. Alvin S. McCoy, “Senate Job to Pearson,” Kansas City Star, January 31, 1962; Beatty, “For the Benefit of the People,” 266–67; Senator courted the editors’ favor by taking their editorials James B. Pearson, personal communication with author, Washington, seriously and calling them occasionally to discuss issues. DC, January 1969, author’s personal collection. 11. In 1962 both Pearson and Carlson voted with President Kennedy Throughout his political career, Pearson enjoyed the 42 percent of the time. In 1963 Pearson voted with Kennedy and support of most of the Kansas press. Ray Morgan of the President Lyndon Johnson 36 percent of the time, while Carlson voted with them 46 percent of the time. Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 87th Kansas City Star often wrote favorably about Pearson, Congress, 2nd Session, 1962, Volume 18 (Washington, DC: Congressional

300 Kansas History busy gathering a staff, making telephone calls to county Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York dropped out. chairmen, writing correspondence, and building mailing The nomination eventually went to Arizona Senator lists for his weekly column and news releases. Barry Goldwater, who had emerged at the head of the Pearson had keen political instincts but was not him- conservative movement that was already winning over self a natural politician. Richard D. Rogers, a Manhattan many party activists in Kansas. After Goldwater lost to attorney who later became a federal district judge, told the the incumbent president, Lyndon Johnson, Pearson went story of driving Pearson to a small, north central Kansas on the offensive for his vision of a balanced political town and letting him out to walk the business district. party reminiscent of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “You walk,” Pearson said, “I’ll drive.” Pearson liked “middle way.” In a speech in Mission, Kansas, Pearson to discuss issues with small groups, but when it came said the Republican Party “cannot fly on one wing. Our to door-to-door campaigning, he “would rather have a party must have the breadth and tolerance to encompass root canal,” said John Conard, his first administrative both a left and a right arm.”14 assistant. As a southerner Pearson “thought walking up This declaration of independence by a junior Re- to a stranger and shaking his hand was rude,” Conard publican senator in a conservative state was less dramatic said. Both Conard and Rogers believed Pearson was than it might seem today. Rockefeller, with whom basically shy.12 Pearson had become identified, was a respected figure With Cliff Hope, Jr., managing his campaign, Pear- in the national Republican leadership. That leadership son won the Republican nomination in August 1962, included voices ranging from Goldwater and California defeating former Governor Arn, a conservative of the Governor Ronald Reagan on the right to Rockefeller, old guard, with 62.3 percent of the vote. Pearson’s Scranton, and Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon on the decisive victory sent a signal to Kansas voters that a new left. Although he started his Senate career voting as a generation of moderate, pragmatic Republicans had partisan conservative, Pearson by the end of 1964 had taken charge. In the general election Pearson defeated moved to a more moderate position. Pearson’s call for Democrat Paul Aylward of Ellsworth with 56.9 percent tolerance was in tune with the demand for unity in the of the vote.13 Defeating Arn put Pearson in a strong Kansas GOP. Such unity was needed to respond to the position to deal with any dissatisfaction that might arise rising strength of the Democrats at the polls, strength within the Kansas GOP as he sought his first full term in evidenced by the election of Democratic Governor 1966. It also gave him confidence to assert himself as a George Docking in both 1956 and 1958 and his son United State senator. Robert Docking in 1966.15 Following the assassination of President Kennedy in s Pearson was establishing his position in November 1963, civil rights became the overriding issue Kansas, Republican politics were moving to in the Senate. Pearson voted in favor of the 1964 Civil the right nationally. Rogers, Pearson’s close Rights Act—as did every member of the Kansas House ally and state party chairman, attended delegation and the state’s senior senator, Frank Carlson. the 1964 Republican National Convention as a Kansas In correspondence with his constituents, Pearson Adelegate and ultimately supported Pennsylvania Gov- defended Title VII of the bill, which expanded the powers ernor William Scranton, a liberal who stepped up after of the attorney general to intervene in alleged cases of

Quarterly Service, 1962), 714; see also Congressional Quarterly 14. “Pearson Cites Party’s Needs,” Kansas City Star, January 12, Almanac, 88th Congress, 1st Session, 1963, Volume 19 (Washington, DC: 1965; “The Future of the Republican Party,” speech by Senator Pearson, Congressional Quarterly Service, 1963), 42–45, 716–17; Robert H. Clark, Lawrence (also delivered at Mission, Kansas), January 12, 1965, box 356, “Kansans Back Stand on Cuba,” Kansas City Star, October 28, 1962. folder 4, Schedules and Speeches, Pearson Papers; “Kansas Delegates 12. Richard D. Rogers, interview by author, Topeka, Kansas, June 30, on Way Tomorrow,” Kansas City Star, July 9, 1964; “Kansans Hoist 2006, author’s personal collection; John Conard, interview by author, ‘Neutral’ Flag,” Topeka Daily Capital, July 13, 1964; “Barry Claiming 15 Lawrence, Kansas, April 20, 2007, author’s personal collection; see Kansas Delegates,” Topeka Daily Capital, July 14, 1964; “Kansas Hearts also Conard, interview by Ramon Powers, November 10, 2004, copy with Barry,” Topeka Daily Capital, July 15, 1964; Rogers interview, in author’s personal collection; Pearson himself called campaigning November 3, 2009. “an exercise in extrovertism.” He hated making “the typical political 15. Pearson still voted with President Johnson only 37 percent of speech full of clichés.” Joe Lastelic, “Pearson Finds New Respect in the time in 1964. Carlson voted with Johnson 52 percent of the time. Job,” Kansas City Star, April 23, 1967. Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 88th Congress, 2nd Session, 1964, 13. Alvin S. McCoy, “Pearson by a Landslide,” Kansas City Times, Volume 20 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Service, 1964), August 8, 1962; Secretary of State, State of Kansas, Election Statistics, 731; Joel Paddock, “The Gubernatorial Campaigns of Robert Docking, 1962, Primary and General Elections (Topeka: Secretary of State, [1962]), 1966–1972,” Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 31 (Summer 17, 55. 2008): 86–103.

The Career of Senator James B. Pearson 301 Pearson was guarded in his public comments on equal rights for black Americans and apparently made no major speech on the subject in Kansas or in the Senate. But he was outspoken against the influence of racial prejudice in the policy-making process. “It would be a sad commentary on American politics,” he wrote in a weekly newspaper column, “if the decisive votes were cast out of fear, bigotry, or ignorance rather than based upon the capabilities of the candidates and the issues involved.”17 The Kansan who grew up in the South may have understood that actions spoke louder than words when it came to race. Pearson later joined a bipartisan civil rights caucus that backed fair housing legislation. He remained part of that informal group into the 1970s.18 In 1966 Pearson was up for election to his first full term, with the prospect of establishing himself in the Senate for years. Somewhat surprisingly, three-term Con- gressman Robert F. Ellsworth of Lawrence decided to challenge Pearson in the Republican primary. Al- though he and Pearson shared positions on many issues, Ellsworth had the backing of some of the old guard in the Kansas GOP. Cliff Hope, Jr., who had been Among the long-time leaders of the “old guard” to be challenged by Pearson’s close companion in the Kansas Senate, saw the Anderson, Pearson, Hope, and the rest of the “young Turks” was influence of what he called “the Goldwater people” in former Governor Ed Arn of Wichita. Arn, a lawyer and World War Ellsworth’s decision.19 Ellsworth was a member of the II veteran, served the state of Kansas as attorney general, justice of liberal Wednesday Club in the House but kept close ties the Kansas State Supreme Court, and as governor from 1951 until 1955. In 1962 Arn ran for a U.S. Senate seat against Pearson, who with conservatives at home; he had always resisted any had held the seat for a few months after he was appointed to it upon “moderate” label. While the conservative movement may the death of Kansas Senator Andrew F. Schoeppel. Pearson defeated have prompted the Ellsworth challenge, it was driven Arn in the primary and then bested the Democratic candidate in the general election. Pearson’s decisive victory sent a signal to Kansas as well by Ellsworth’s own ambition to move up and a voters that a new generation of moderate, pragmatic Republicans had desire for payback on the part of the old guard for the taken charge. progressive sweep of 1960 that Pearson and Anderson 20 racial discrimination. Pearson stood firm in favor of the had led in Kansas. final bill, voting to end debate on it after fifty-seven days. According to Hope, Huck Boyd’s protégé, Con- “I believe the principles embodied in this bill are morally gressman Robert J. “Bob” Dole of Russell, encouraged right,” he wrote to constituents. “We are confronted with Ellsworth to run. But Dole did not campaign for Ells- a national problem and Federal action is justified because worth. In the end Pearson defeated Ellsworth by 54 to 45 we are dealing with rights guaranteed under the Federal Constitution.” Later, in a column headlined “Civil Rights “Civil Rights Tests Senate Procedures,” March 16, 1964, Column and Newsletter Series, box 385, folder 6, Weekly Columns, 1964, Pearson Tests Senate Procedures,” Pearson expressed to readers Papers. of weekly newspapers in Kansas his reservations about 17. “Does One Vote Matter?,” October 12, 1964, Column and the rules that allowed extended filibusters such as the Newsletter Series, box 385, folder 6, Weekly Columns, 1964, Pearson Papers. one led by Senator Richard Russell of Georgia against 18. Other Republican members of the caucus included Jacob Javits of the Civil Rights Act. The act passed June 19, 1964, and New York, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, and Clifford Case of New 16 Jersey. Democrat Phil Hart of Michigan chaired the caucus. Democrat became law. Walter Mondale carried the fair housing bill on the Senate floor; it became law in 1968. See Walter F. Mondale with David Hage, The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics (New York: Scribner, 2010), 55–68. 16. Senator James B. Pearson to William K. Walker, June 25, 1964, 19. Hope, Jr., interview. General Series, 1964, box 19, folder 20, Civil Rights, Pearson Papers; 20. “For the Record: Political Notes,” Ripon Forum 13 (March 1967); see also Dennis W. Johnson, The Laws that Shaped America: Fifteen Acts of Richard D. Rogers, interview by author, Topeka, Kansas, March 30, Congress and their Lasting Impact (New York: Routledge, 2009), 293–331; 2006.

302 Kansas History When Senator Pearson stood for reelection in 1966, he faced a somewhat surprising challenge in the Republican primary from three-term Congressman Robert Ellsworth of Lawrence, drawn at left in a campaign brochure. The Ellsworth campaign emphasized the senator’s poor 1965 attendance rating, despite the fact that it was largely the result of family illness, and ran “Missing Pearson Bureau” ads on the radio. The overriding issue of the campaign would be “activism versus absenteeism,” and Ellsworth asserted that Pearson had “the worst attendance record of any Republican in the United States Senate.” Pearson handily won the primary, nevertheless, and went on to defeat former Democratic Congressman J. Floyd Breeding of Rolla in November by 52 to 45 percent of the vote. percent of the vote. Pearson won every county outside Pearson defeated former Democratic Congressman J. of the eight in Ellsworth’s district, which included Floyd Breeding of Rolla in southwest Kansas by 52 to 45 Pearson’s own Johnson County, where the residue of percent of the vote.22 Anderson’s troubles in nearby Kansas City, Kansas, may The contest with Ellsworth became personal for have hurt Pearson, who at that time was still identified Pearson, who was hurt by radio ads Ellsworth launched with his former ally. “I lost Johnson County,” Pearson in which a search for the senator was put out by a told the Kansas City Star’s Washington Bureau reporter 22. In Goodland, in northwest Kansas, 25 percent of voters knew Joe Lastelic. “I lost my home county and that just is a Ellsworth while 75 percent knew Pearson, according to William tremendous disappointment to me.”21 In western Kansas, Brooks’s May 1966 study. Cliff Hope, Sr., who represented southwest Kansas in Congress for thirty years, from 1927 to 1957, remained a where he had campaigned in three previous elections strong voice in Republican politics in western Kansas and urged voters and Ellsworth was little known, Pearson piled up large to support Pearson because of his experience. Congressman Breeding margins. A timely endorsement by former Congressman succeeded Hope in 1957 and won reelection in 1958 and 1960; but he lost the general election to Bob Dole in 1962, when both incumbents were Clifford Hope, Sr., also helped. In the general election, forced to compete in the newly created “Big First” district. See William Brooks, “A Study of the Images of Congressman Robert Ellsworth and Senator James Pearson in Five Selected Counties in Kansas” (paper, 21. Joe Lastelic, “Pearson Sad Over Home County Loss,” Kansas Communications Research Center, University of Kansas, Lawrence, City Times, August 6, 1966; Hope, Jr., interview; Secretary of State, State May 24, 1966); Clifford Hope, “Cliff’s Comments,” Hutchinson News, of Kansas, Election Statistics, 1966, Primary and General Elections (Topeka: July 3, 1966; State of Kansas, Election Statistics, 1962 and State of Kansas, State Printing Plant, [1966]), 15–17, 73. Election Statistics, 1966.

The Career of Senator James B. Pearson 303 “Missing Pearson Bureau” after he had missed a number of votes. Senator Pearson had missed roll calls in 1965 when he returned to Kansas to help with his teenage son, Thomas, who had suffered an emotional disturbance and was treated at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka. According to John Conard, Ellsworth had been helpful to Pearson when he first came to the Senate. Now Ellsworth knew about “Tommy,” Pearson told his staff, but aired the ads anyway. The overriding issue of the campaign would be “activism versus absenteeism,” Ellsworth’s ads asserted, and Pearson had “the worst attendance record of any Republican in the United States Senate.” Pearson believed there were some lines that should not be crossed even in the heat of a political campaign. Despite a prolonged public attempt at reconciliation, the once- cordial relationship between Pearson and Ellsworth was lost.23 Pearson’s relationship with another Kansas politician, Bob Dole, developed into a carefully veiled, but intense rivalry. The styles of the two Republicans were altogether different. Pearson disliked campaigning. Dole loved and was very good at it. Dole was intensely loyal to the Republican Party, while Pearson seemed at times only to tolerate its demands. When Pearson went Pearson’s relationship with Bob Dole of Russell developed into a carefully veiled but intense rivalry. The styles of these two Kansas to the Senate, Dole was finishing his first term in the Republicans were altogether different: Dole was intensely partisan, U.S. House of Representatives. The two got along well while Pearson seemed only to tolerate his party’s demands for loyalty. enough, according to Conard, but when Dole won a seat When Pearson went to the Senate, Dole was finishing his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives. The two got along well enough, in the Senate in 1968, following Senator Frank Carlson’s but when Dole moved into the Senate in 1968, having won the open retirement, the press spotlight shifted to the colorful, seat of retiring Senator Frank Carlson, the press spotlight shifted to badly wounded veteran of the Allied invasion of Italy in the colorful veteran of the Allied invasion of Italy in World War II. 24 Pearson, the senior senator, was shaded further by Dole’s loyalty to World War II. Pearson, the senior senator, was shaded President Nixon, a loyalty Pearson had rarely demonstrated. further by Dole’s loyalty to President Nixon, a loyalty Pearson had rarely demonstrated. Landon Lecture at Kansas State University in Manhattan, In March 1968 Pearson dramatically displayed his only two days after Kennedy’s announcement that he distance from the rising conservatism in the Republican was running for president. Kennedy went on to the Party in Kansas when he introduced his classmate from University of Kansas at Lawrence, where he called for the University of Virginia Law School, Democratic Sena- negotiations on Vietnam. “I don’t accept the idea that this tor Robert F. Kennedy, to a crowd of cheering students at a is just [an American] military effort,” he told students.25

23. Pearson cast recorded votes 65 percent of the time. Ellsworth’s 25. “Crowd Nears 20,000 At Fieldhouse During Robert Kennedy claim was true with regard to Senate Republicans, but it is useful to note Visit,” Lawrence Daily Journal-World, March 18, 1968; Remarks of Robert that four Democratic senators scored lower: Gale McGee of Wyoming F. Kennedy at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, March 18, 1968, at 62 percent, Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota at 59 percent, Richard Robert F. Kennedy Speeches, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Russell, Jr., of Georgia at 52 percent, and Harry Byrd, Sr., of Virginia and Museum, Boston, Mass.; “Pearson in Odd Situation During at 49 percent. “1966 Election Outlook,” Congressional Quarterly Weekly Monday’s Activity,” Lawrence Daily Journal-World, March 19, 1968; Report 24 (February 18, 1966): 395; Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 89th Thurston Clarke, The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Congress, 1st Session, 1965, Volume 21 (Washington, DC: Congressional Inspired America (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008), 39–50; Quarterly Service, 1965), 1119–21; for Ellsworth campaign materials, Paddock, “The Gubernatorial Campaigns of Robert Docking,” 93–95; see for example “Let’s Get Things Done for Kansas,” and “On the Job Pearson introduction of Robert F. Kennedy, March 18, 1968, Kansas for You,” in Republican Party Campaign Literature, 1966, State Library State University, Administrative Series, box 358, folder 52, Schedules & and Archives Division, Kansas Historical Society, Topeka; on attempted Speeches, Pearson Papers; Robert F. Kennedy, “Conflict in Vietnam and reconciliation, see Joe Lastelic, “Pearson a Host to Ellsworth,” Kansas at Home,” in The Landon Lectures: Perspectives from the First Twenty Years, City Star, August 6, 1967. ed. William L. Richter and Charles E. Reagan (Manhattan: Friends of 24. Conard interview, April 20, 2007. the Libraries of Kansas State University [1988]), 33–45.

304 Kansas History Although Pearson opposed much of President Kennedy’s New Frontier and President Johnson’s Great Society, when his law school classmate and friend Bobby Kennedy, a Democratic senator from New York State, visited Kansas in March 1968 Pearson was at his side. Pearson introduced Senator Kennedy, who had thrown his hat into the presidential ring only two days before, to a crowd of cheering students at a Landon Lecture at Kansas State University in Manhattan where this photograph was made. Kennedy’s wife, Ethel (far left), and Pearson, who are seated here behind the candidate, accompanied him on to the University of Kansas at Lawrence, where he called for “meaningful negotiations” aimed at ending the war in Vietnam. “I am concerned about the course of action we are following in South Vietnam,” reasoned Kennedy. “I am concerned that this has been made America’s war. . . . I think that’s unacceptable. I don’t accept the idea that this is just [an American] military effort.”

Many Republicans in the state were stunned by Pearson’s voiced his concern about rapidly changing conditions in boldness, but this courtesy to the charismatic Kennedy the world. “Failure to adjust our policy,” he said, “will gave Pearson new credibility among young voters. destine us to indecision and reflex reactions to new During the period of Nixon’s first term, from 1969 challenges,” as he believed had happened in Cuba and to 1973, Pearson’s independence as a legislator became was happening in Vietnam.26 Pearson joined many of his fully apparent. Early in the Nixon years Pearson Wednesday Club colleagues in seeking to restrain the joined the Wednesday Club in the Senate, a group of president’s expansion of the Vietnam War. This effort some sixteen moderate and liberal Republicans who peaked with an amendment offered by Democrat Frank met each Wednesday to discuss issues. Senator Jacob Church of Idaho and Republican John Sherman Cooper Javits of New York was the informal leader. While of Kentucky to stop the bombing of Laos and Cambodia. they occasionally invited representatives of the Nixon administration to join them, the group, which had no 26. John R. Cauley, “Urges Updated Foreign Policy,” Kansas City official standing within the GOP caucus, often brought Star, October 6, 1966; Jacob K. Javits, with Rafael Steinberg, Javits: The in outside experts. The Wednesday Club focused on Autobiography of a Public Man (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1981), 262, 263. Javits called Pearson “an enlightened conservative who played a foreign policy, a subject of genuine interest to Pearson. very useful role in reviewing policy matters from a Middle Western During his campaign against Ellsworth, Pearson had point of view.”

The Career of Senator James B. Pearson 305 During the early years of Richard Nixon’s administration, Pearson joined the Wednesday Club in the Senate, a group of some sixteen moderate and liberal Republicans who met each Wednesday to discuss various issues. Senator Jacob Javits, a New York Republican first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1956 and pictured serving with Pearson on the Foreign Relations Committee in May 1973, was the informal leader. Over the years Pearson pursued many opportunities to work “across the aisle” and with his more liberal Republican colleagues, such as Senator Javits, who once called Pearson “an enlightened conservative who played a very useful role in reviewing policy matters from a Middle Western point of view.” After nearly a quarter-century in the Senate and with his Republican Party moving further and further to the political right, Javits was denied renomination in 1980, two years after his Kansas colleague took voluntary retirement. Photograph courtesy of Mrs. James B. Pearson.

Pearson cosponsored the amendment and voted for it. two Kansas senators differed sharply on foreign policy He also questioned the Supersonic Transport System issues, and on some key domestic issues, such as the proposed by the administration, and voted against nomination by President Nixon of Earl Butz as secretary authorizing several new weapons systems, including of agriculture (Pearson voted against the confirmation; the Safeguard anti-ballistic missile system. He showed Dole voted in favor). But the two Kansans nearly always his independence on domestic issues by cosponsoring voted in tandem on matters directly affecting their state, legislation on transportation, campaign finance, and such as maintaining farm support programs, building consumer rights with liberal Democrats. In August 1970 Pearson voiced his opposition to the Vietnam War, even as Dole was becoming the Nixon administration’s leading of the Vietnam War. He had campaigned in support of the war in 27 1966 and continued to support it, with some reservations. “Address spokesman on the Senate floor for its war policies. The by Senator James B. Pearson,” Cooperative Urban Teacher Education Banquet, Wichita, Kansas, August 30, 1970, Administrative Series, box 27. In a speech to a teachers’ banquet in Wichita, Pearson said the 360, folder 46, Schedules and Speeches, Pearson Papers. The Cooper- United States “should continue the Nixon policy of disengagement Church amendment passed the Senate by a vote of 58 to 37. “The 92nd and withdrawal from the war in Indochina at the earliest possible Congress,” Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report 29 (January 15, 1971): time.” This was Pearson’s first public statement urging an early end 116–17.

306 Kansas History flood control reservoirs, and bringing urban renewal to small cities.28 One of the most politically costly of Pearson’s legislative stands was his opposition to Nixon’s Safeguard anti- ballistic missile system (ABM) in the summer of 1969. The president proposed a system of defensive missiles and radar to protect the nation’s long-range, offensive Minuteman nuclear missiles. After studying Safeguard, Pearson found it technically unsound and feared it would provoke a Soviet offensive buildup; he decided to oppose its deployment. “For one in the Senate to make a contribution to the solution to the difficult problems affecting our national security . . . each Senator must exercise his own best judgment in accordance with the quiet turning of his conscience,” Pearson reasoned on the Senate floor. “Not only is this the responsible role for a Senator but it is also the one by which public policy can be defined and understood in our democratic process.”29 Senator Pearson’s independence as a legislator became fully apparent In explaining his stance against Safeguard, Pearson had as early as 1970, when he made his first public statement urging an early end to the Vietnam War. He told a group of Wichita teachers stated his fundamental idea of what it meant to be a that the United States should withdraw “from the war in Indochina United State senator. at the earliest possible time” and joined many of his Wednesday Club His position on the ABM was well received by the colleagues in seeking to restrain the president’s expansion of the war. This effort peaked during the latter half of 1970 with a bipartisan Wednesday Club, if not altogether in the Republican amendment offered by Democrat Frank Church of Idaho, pictured cloakroom. Along with Pearson’s other stands against here with Pearson in 1974, and Republican John Sherman Cooper Nixon’s national security policies, this one caused of Kentucky to stop the bombing of Laos and Cambodia. Photograph Pearson problems with Republican Party regulars in courtesy of Mrs. James B. Pearson. Kansas. “How can you know more about this than the 30 president does?,” one constituent asked. In the end Kansas; but he continued to be, in the words of Tom deployment of Safeguard was authorized and Nixon Korlogos, Senate liaison for the Nixon White House, “a and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, tough vote to get.”31 took it to Moscow and used it as diplomatic leverage It was during this period that Pearson began to to negotiate the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty be looked at by his Republican Senate colleagues as a (SALT I). This followed an agreement with the Soviets leader. His humor was celebrated in the GOP cloakroom. limiting anti-ballistic missile systems to one per nation. When a young staffer with two children said his wife After consultation with the White House, Pearson was pregnant, Pearson’s quick response was, “Still, or determined the president’s purpose was sensible and again?” When the Republican Party caucus reorganized changed his position, voting in 1970 to oppose efforts in the fall of 1969 in preparation for the opening of the to limit funding for Safeguard. Certainly there were second session of the Ninety-first Congress, Pearson political considerations in Pearson’s reversal. Although a was persuaded to offer himself for the whip position. run for reelection was two years away, he was concerned He received some national press attention and at one about “stretching the rubber band too far” between his point thought he had enough votes to win. But when the legislative record and pro-Nixon Republicans back closed-door balloting was over on September 7, 1969, home. Pearson was said to be in trouble by some in Pearson had lost by one vote to Senator Robert P. Griffin of Michigan. Griffin had made a name for himself in 1968 28. Robert J. Dole, interview by author, Washington, DC, May 22, 2006, author’s personal collection. 31. Tom Korlogos, interview by author, Washington, DC, August 29. 91st Cong., 1st sess., Congressional Record 115 (July 25, 1969), pt. 17, 2008; for more on Safeguard, see Alton Frye, A Responsible Congress: 15, 20798–99. The Politics of National Security (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975), 35–43; 30. Pearson, personal communication with author, June 1969; 91st Richard Nixon, The Memoirs of Richard Nixon (New York: Grosset & Cong., 1st sess., Congressional Record 115 (July 25, 1969), pt. 15, 20798. Dunlap, 1978), 415–18, 523–24; see also “The ABM,” in Column and Newsletter Series, Pearson Papers.

The Career of Senator James B. Pearson 307 during the battle to defeat the confirmation of Associate for bringing to bear the full authority of the federal Justice Abe Fortas, President Johnson’s nominee for chief government to determine the cause of the crash. He sent justice of the Supreme Court.32 This was the first and last Joe Dennis, his administrative assistant in Kansas, to the time Pearson would try for a leadership position in his crash site near the base of Loveland Pass, which stood at party. In a sense his defeat by Griffin was the high-water 11,990 feet. Pearson also sent Bob Woody, his Commerce mark of his influence and that of the Wednesday Club Committee staff aide, to hearings in Wichita held by the within the Senate Republican caucus. National Transportation Safety Board. Pearson himself It was almost as if Pearson’s qualities were best did not go to Wichita, perhaps out of concern about appreciated in the Democratic caucus. His bipartisan appearing to exploit the tragedy. He was also engaged at voting record was the second highest among Senate that time in final negotiations on financing for the Airport Republicans. Pearson had made allies among Demo- and Airways Development Act, his principal legislative crats, principally through his work on the Commerce achievement to that time. His junior colleague, Bob Dole, Committee. Russell Long of Louisiana, son of the did attend the hearings, underlining Pearson’s absence.34 legendary Governor Huey Long, was one of them. On another front Pearson was having trouble with Affable and powerful, Russell Long chaired the Finance the Nixon administration, trouble that came from back Committee, the real insiders’ panel in the Senate. Long home. When U.S. Chief District Judge Arthur Stanley, once offered Pearson a seat on his committee, suggesting Jr., of Kansas City, Kansas, announced he would retire it would be good for Pearson at reelection time. “On in 1971, John Anderson sought to succeed Stanley and Finance, you can make people happy,” Long said. When was on the short list of candidates. However, Anderson Pearson replied he was thinking of a seat on the Foreign had alienated Stanley and his allies in the 1950s by Relations Committee, Long was appalled. Determined supporting efforts by the city of Kansas City, Kansas, to pursue his interest in foreign policy and to try to deal to annex the Fairfax Industrial District. Stanley and with “the great issues of the day,” Pearson took a seat on his family had sold land for the district to the Union Foreign Relations, the committee chaired by J. William Pacific Railroad. Stanley himself was for a time the Fulbright, the Democrat from Arkansas who split with lead attorney representing the forty-one industries in President Johnson on Vietnam. Interestingly, Dole later the district, companies that included General Motors, took a seat on the Finance Committee and used it as the National Biscuit Company, and North American the platform for his successful bid to become minority Aviation, which manufactured the B-25 bomber. At one leader.33 point twenty-five thousand people were employed in the district. When Stanley’s clients lost their bid to reverse s Pearson asserted his independence in the annexation in the state supreme court, Anderson as the Senate, disaster hit Wichita, Kansas. attorney general refused to appeal the court’s decision. On October 2, 1970, a plane crash in the The case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court and Rocky Mountains killed thirty members of was decided in favor of the city. Anderson had stood up the Wichita State University football team along with to powerful interests and burnished his reputation for Asome of their fans, coaches, and school administrators. courage and independence—but made lifelong enemies As an ally of Wichita aviation manufacturers and the of Stanley and his allies.35 ranking Republican on the aviation subcommittee of the A renowned veteran of two world wars and a po- Senate Commerce Committee, Pearson felt responsible werful former state senator, Stanley swore Anderson 36 32. Pearson, who had also voted against Fortas, believed Dole would never get a federal judgeship. Stanley had a had not voted for him for whip at the critical moment, but since the balloting was secret, this could not be confirmed. Senator James B. Pearson, personal communication with author, Washington, DC, 34. Wichita Eagle and Beacon, October 3, 1970, and subsequent issues; September 7, 1969, author’s personal collection; Congressional Quarterly Bob Woody, interview by author, Winfield, Kansas, March 21, 2011. Almanac, 90th Congress, 2nd Session, 1968, Volume 24 (Washington, DC: 35. For more on the Fairfax Industrial District see, Kansas City Star, Congressional Quarterly Service, 1968), 54-S. March 6–19, 1949; July 5, 1953; and July 22, 1959; on Anderson’s support 33. Pearson voted with bipartisan majorities 83 percent of the time for annexation see, Kansas City Star, July 22, 1959; see also Roxi Taylor, in 1969; among Republican senators only Richard S. Schweiker of “History of Fairfax Industrial Park,” in “Focus on Fairfax,” Kansas City Pennsylvania had a higher bipartisan voting percentage (85 percent). Star, supplement, April 16, 1989. Congressional Quarterly Almanac, 91st Congress, 1st Session, 1969, 36. Rogers interviews, September 3, 2006, and November 3, 2009. Volume 25 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1970), 1064; H. Large law firms in Kansas City, Kansas, and Olathe, as well asthe Edward Flentje, “A Loophole Closing Commission,” Hutchinson News, Wyandotte County Bar Association, backed Justice Earl O’Connor February 21, 2010, available online at http://www.hutchnews.com/ rather than Anderson. The executive committee of the Johnson Print/insight-2-22--1. County Bar Association compromised and endorsed both O’Connor

308 Kansas History friend, Harold Tyler, in the Justice Department, where earson navigated his way through the Anderson candidates for judgeships were vetted. Anderson had affair with a minimum of political damage, high expectations from early on that Pearson could help but his distance from Nixon and differences him get a judgeship, but Pearson understood it would be with Dole left him looking vulnerable as his difficult for him, then a freshman in the minority, to be reelection approached in 1972. Some members of his party much help. Pearson plainly felt an obligation to Anderson Pthought Pearson “was not Republican enough.”38 There but had mixed feelings about Anderson’s qualifications were rumors that Kansas Governor Robert Docking, and his chances of success. The senator was concerned a popular, pro-business Democrat, would challenge about getting into a fight with the Stanley forces, who Pearson. For over a year Pearson traveled home nearly included Harry Darby and Dole’s mentor Huck Boyd. every weekend to mend fences. When it came time for He was also bothered by the appearance of cronyism. “If him to announce his intentions, Pearson and several of he [Anderson] becomes a federal judge then I can see his Washington staff braved snow, ice, and congested everything we worked for in the Republican Party of airports to arrive just in time at the annual Kansas Day Kansas just going right down the drain,” Pearson told Celebration in Topeka on January 29. “I want to go on Charles McAtee, an aide to then-Governor Anderson because I believe in Kansas; I believe in the Republican who called on Pearson in Washington. In 1971 Pearson Party; [and] I believe in myself,” Pearson told an anxious put Anderson’s name forward, but faced with active audience of Republican stalwarts. By the end of his brief opposition from fellow Kansas attorneys, especially in announcement, the crowd was applauding loudly. The Kansas City, Kansas, and neighboring Johnson County, Docking threat did not materialize, and Dole agreed to Anderson was not expected to win a recommendation chair Pearson’s campaign. Pearson went on to defeat from the American Bar Association. With his colleague Harlan Dale House, a farmer from Goodland, in the Bob Dole backing state Supreme Court Justice Earl primary with 82 percent of the vote, and the Democratic O’Connor, Pearson persisted for a time on behalf of nominee Arch Tetzlaf, a former German Luftwaffe pilot, Anderson, but to no avail. Anderson finally withdrew in the general election. Pearson won that election with 73 his name and Pearson and Dole sent O’Connor’s name percent of the vote.39 These victories served to enhance to the White House. O’Connor was nominated and Pearson’s stature as a serious, bipartisan lawmaker. A confirmed. Anderson never forgave Pearson for failing Kansas City Star editorial was highly complimentary: to secure a judgeship for him. “He got out to D.C. and “Pearson is not a rubber stamp. He takes time to think forgot about where he had received his help along the issues through. When he speaks or acts, you can be sure way and who his friends were,” Anderson said. “I never he knows the subject.”40 The “man in the middle” had heard from him and he didn’t end up recommending me. earned a second full term. I was very disappointed by that.”37 Not really comfortable as a politician, Pearson devoted himself to legislating. Among his most notable legislative achievements was passage of the Airport and Airways Development Act of 1970. Pearson had earned the respect of his majority Democratic colleagues on the Commerce Committee by supporting, and sticking with, and Anderson. See, Charles E. Wetzler, president, Johnson County a number of their initiatives including nationwide unit Bar Association, Olathe, to Pearson, January 12, 1971, Subject/Issues 41 Series, Federal Jobs, box 352, folder 1, “Judgeships, 1970–1971,” pricing for groceries. As the ranking minority member Pearson Papers. 37. Beatty, “For the Benefit of the People,” 266–67; Harold Tyler, a 38. Jerry Waters, Pearson’s administrative assistant, personal U.S. district judge, had served on a committee on the federal judiciary communication with author and other former members of Pearson’s with Stanley. Rogers interview, November 3, 2009; Conard interview, Washington staff, Washington, DC, April 10, 2005, author’s personal April 20, 2007. See also John W. Breyfogle, Jr., Olathe, to Pearson, collection. January 15, 1971; Pearson to John W. Breyfogle, Jr., January 20, 1971; 39. “Statement by Senator James B. Pearson,” January 29, 1972, and Willard L. Phillips to Pearson, February 4, 1971, box 352, folder Administrative Series, box 362, folder 73, Schedules and Speeches, 1, “Judgeships, 1970–1971,” Pearson Papers. See also John J. Jurcyk, Pearson Papers; Ray Morgan, “G.O.P. Cheers Pearson On,” Kansas president, Wyandotte County Bar Association, to Pearson, October 15, City Star, January 30, 1972; Secretary of State, State of Kansas, Election 1971; and Eugene T. Hackler, Olathe, to Pearson, August 26, 1971, and Statistics, 1971 Special Election, 1972 Primary and Special Elections, 1972 Hackler to Pearson, September 15, 1971, box 352, folder 2, “Judgeships, General Elections (Topeka: State Printing Plant, 1973), 16, 84. 1970–1971,” Pearson Papers. Hackler defended Anderson and wrote 40. “Kansas Has an Outstanding Man in Senator Pearson,” Kansas “opposition to John’s appointment is coming basically from three City Star, October 25, 1972. sources, all good sized law firms in this area, who have expressed some 41. John Kirtland to the author, July 5, 2010, author’s personal bitterness arising from previous litigation.” collection. Kirtland was also Pearson’s appointee to the Commerce Committee staff.

The Career of Senator James B. Pearson 309 As support continued to grow for modifying Rule XXII, the cloture rule, Democrats in the Senate turned to Pearson to help carry a resolution on the floor. In January 1975 Pearson cosponsored with Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota a resolution that reduced to three-fifths the number of votes required to end debate. Mondale, who later served as vice president in the Carter administration, was frustrated by the use of the filibuster to block bills he had introduced on housing and to aid desegregating school districts. As Mondale put it, he and Pearson respected the right of individual senators “to debate—to speak, to ventilate, to delay, to be heard,” but both saw the high bar of the cloture rule as an impediment to reasoned decision making. Photograph of Pearson and Mondale courtesy of Mrs. James B. Pearson.

of the aviation subcommittee, Pearson played a major An important piece of legislation championed by role in drafting the bill to upgrade the nation’s aviation Pearson, in collaboration with Democrats, was a bill system. He worked with chairman Warren Magnuson, to deregulate the wellhead price of “new” natural gas. Democrat of Washington, subcommittee chairman Louisiana was the leading producer of natural gas and Howard Cannon, Democrat of Nevada, and others to that state’s low-level price controls stymied the growth produce a bill that authorized the collection of taxes and of a national market. Pearson teamed with fellow fees from airports, airlines, and private aviation to create Commerce Committee member Lloyd Bentsen of Texas a trust fund—akin to the highway trust fund—for long- to carve out a compromise that lifted price controls from term improvement of the system. The bill passed the newly drilled wells, while leaving controls on existing Senate on May 12, 1970, and has become a basic building wells. Again, it was Long, Pearson’s frequent ally, who block of the expanded air travel system we have today.42 suggested the compromise. The Pearson-Bentsen bill was introduced in 1974 and passed the Senate but failed 42. John Kirtland to the author, April 19, 2010, author’s personal in the House. In late December 1977 a conference report collection; Woody personal communication, April 10, 2005; “Airports in which the Pearson-Bentsen bill had been incorporated and Airways,” Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report 27 (May 15, 1970): 1275–76. was adopted and sent to President Jimmy Carter, who

310 Kansas History favored deregulation and signed it. With modifications still showed his willingness to intervene in the private in subsequent years, the act made natural gas available sector by supporting expanded service by Amtrak, the as a relatively clean and inexpensive fuel nationwide.43 government-backed rail passenger corporation.45 Pearson also devoted much time and effort to rural As he demonstrated during the civil rights debate, development. His concern for the overcrowding of Pearson took an interest from early in his Senate career in America’s cities and the depletion of the rural population modifying the rules surrounding the filibuster. Political was real, and it led Pearson to become the principal science professor H. Edward Flentje, who worked on Republican contributor to federal agricultural policies Pearson’s Washington, DC, staff in 1968, recalled one aimed at trying to balance economic growth. In July of his first research assignments was on Rule XXII, 1967 Pearson teamed with Robert Kennedy to back the cloture rule, which can be used to end a filibuster. a bill creating incentives for industry to bring jobs to Pearson loved to debate issues, but understood the inner cities. Later that year Pearson joined Democratic importance of modifying the cloture rule so a Senate Senator Fred Harris of Oklahoma to introduce the Rural majority could act on the people’s business. He lent his Jobs Development Act, which created incentives for name to several efforts to reduce the requirement that the location of industry in rural communities. This bill a two-thirds majority, or sixty-six votes, was needed to was introduced in revised form many times. In addition end debate. One effort in particular, led by Senator Javits Pearson sponsored bills to create a Rural Development in 1969, came close to succeeding, but did not. At that Bank and a Rural Development Center. Along with his time Pearson was the principal Republican cosponsor, speeches, articles, and statements on the Senate floor, with Senator Church, of the modification resolution that Pearson’s legislative initiatives in this area helped bring failed on the Senate floor.46 about the Rural Development program that today is an As support continued to grow for modifying Rule integral part of the mission of the U.S. Department of XXII, the Democrats in 1975 turned to Pearson to help carry Agriculture. The program’s loans and grants for housing, a resolution on the floor. In January of that year Pearson infrastructure, and business start-ups owe their origin to cosponsored with Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota the ideas put forward by Pearson and his colleagues.44 a resolution that reduced to three-fifths, or sixty, the Pearson’s other notable legislative initiatives included number of votes required to end debate. Mondale was several bills to limit campaign spending and legislation frustrated by the use of the filibuster to block bills he had to establish a newsman’s privilege for protecting con- introduced on housing and to aid desegregating school fidential sources. Few of these bills became law, but districts. As Mondale put it, he and Pearson respected each contributed to further consideration of policy the right of individual senators “to debate—to speak, to changes. In the mid-1970s Pearson took a strong interest ventilate, to delay, to be heard,” but both saw the high in the deregulation of major transportation industries. bar of the cloture rule as an impediment to reasoned During the Carter administration, Pearson joined his decision making. “There is a time for debate,” Pearson colleagues on the Commerce Committee, Democrats and said, “and there is a time to act.”47 Republicans, to fashion the Air Transportation Regula- tory Reform Act of 1978, which the president signed into 45. For the Air Transportation Regulatory Act of 1978, see “Senate law. That legislation opened the way, for better or worse, Approves Measure on Airline Deregulation,” Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report 36 (April 22, 1978): 1022–23; S. 2493-Air Transportation for the hub-and-spoke airline system we have today, with Regulatory Act of 1978, box 287, folder 5, Pearson Legislation, its relatively low airfares and huge passenger numbers. Legislation Series, Pearson Papers; and for more on track abandonment and deregulation see S. 863, Abandonment of Railroads, Box 284, folder Pearson also led a successful legislative effort to speed 38, Pearson Legislation, Legislation Series, Pearson Papers; and Amend the Interstate Commerce Commission’s handling of Regional Railroad Act, Box 285, folders 1, 3, and 10, Pearson Legislation, Legislation Series, Pearson Papers. railroad track abandonments. Always a believer in the 46. H. Edward Flentje was Pearson’s staff appointee to the benefits to the nation of private enterprise, Pearson Commerce Committee from 1968 to 1970. The resolution to reduce the number of votes needed for cloture to two-thirds (sixty-six) won a test vote, 51–47, but Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s ruling that the 43. Kirtland to the author, July 5, 2010. Senator Bentsen was the Senate could change its rules at the beginning of a new Congress by a Democratic nominee for vice president in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis simple majority was immediately overturned. Congressional Quarterly ticket. Almanac 1969, 2-S. 44. John R. Cauley, “Job Push in Slums,” Kansas City Star, July 9, 47. Pearson offered the motion that a simple majority could 1967; Lauren K. Soth, “To Revitalize Rural America,” Des Moines end debate on the resolution he and Mondale had introduced. The Register, July 11, 1971; Jerry Waters, personal communication with the parliamentarian advised Rockefeller to rule in favor of Pearson’s author and former members of Pearson’s Washington staff, April 10, motion. Sarah A. Truel, “Walter F. Mondale and the Filibuster: The 2005, author’s personal collection. Evolution of Agenda Control in the U.S. Senate,” paper prepared

The Career of Senator James B. Pearson 311 Despite resistance led by “rules wizard” James B. From an early stage of his Senate career, Pearson took Allen, Democrat of Alabama, the Mondale-Pearson an interest in what was going on in the world. He made resolution passed. Allen managed to soften it, however. many official trips abroad to Europe, Africa, Asia, the In search of a compromise, Russell Long suggested Middle East, and Latin America. He agreed with Senate sixty votes be required to end debate regardless how Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana that the many senators were present and voting. Mondale and number of U.S. troops in Europe should be drawn down, Pearson had wanted three-fifths of senators present and and pursued this policy as a member of the Armed voting, a number that might not always have amounted Services Committee. Pearson twice served as a delegate to sixty. Rockefeller, then vice president, was presiding. to the United Nations General Assembly, first in 1973 as On the advice of the parliamentarian, Rockefeller ruled a representative of the Nixon administration and again that the Senate could, as it organized in a new session in 1978 as a representative of the Senate. of Congress, change its rules, including Rule XXII, by a Pearson had an abiding interest in institutional simple majority. On February 24, 1975, the Senate acted to reform. In 1962, following a visit to former President modify Rule XXII and require sixty votes for cloture. This Herbert Hoover at his home in Iowa, Pearson joined was the most significant change in the cloture rule since Senator Abraham Ribicoff, Democrat of Connecticut, to it was first invoked under President Woodrow Wilson. propose a new Hoover Commission to reorganize the Unfortunately, the Mondale-Pearson modification of the federal bureaucracy. Early in his Senate career Pearson rule has not helped in the long run. The battle lines on proposed a study of the way foreign policy was made. Rule XXII are drawn almost entirely along party lines As an early proponent of campaign finance reform, today, and the filibuster is used not to protect a region’s Pearson sponsored a bill in 1970 with Senator John customs but to stymie the majority’s legislative agenda. Pastore, Democrat of Rhode Island, to limit spending With the bar for cloture at sixty votes, regardless how on broadcast campaign ads. The legislation was passed many senators are present and voting, the number of by Congress but vetoed by President Nixon. Pearson’s threatened filibusters has grown exponentially, especially several bipartisan efforts to reform campaign finance in recent years.48 were very much part of the process that led to later When in 1975 it was time to seek a successor for U.S. initiatives such as the McCain-Feingold bill of 2007. As District Judge George Templar, Anderson again entered is the case with his efforts to reform Rule XXII, Pearson’s the fray. The situation unfolded in much the same way campaign finance reform efforts have been pushed aside it did in 1971. Anderson could not muster enough by subsequent changes, including the shift to the right in support among members of the Kansas bar. Even after our political system and the rise of partisanship.50 state District Judge Albert B. Fletcher of Junction City, a leading candidate, took an appointment to the U.S. s a man in the middle, James B. Pearson made Military Court of Appeals, Anderson remained only one a difference in the fields of transportation, of a number of candidates. Pearson again held out for a rural development, and foreign policy. The time for Anderson, but he did not make much headway. success of his efforts such as the one with Pearson and Dole finally got together and agreed on Mondale to modify Rule XXII would not have come if Richard Rogers, who had previously served as Pearson’s APearson had not been willing to lend his name, and his campaign manager, a state senator, and chairman of the hand, to enterprises championed by the most liberal Kansas Republican Party. Anderson continued to blame Pearson for not trying hard enough to obtain a federal judgeship for him.49 50. Joe Lastelic, “Pearson Dines with Hoover,” Kansas City Times, June 13, 1962; on campaign finance reform, see 91st Congress, 2nd sess., for a seminar at the Hubert Humphrey Institute at the University of Congressional Record 116 (April 14, 1970), pt. 9, 11592–611; “Campaign Minnesota, Minneapolis, May 2, 2007; see also Sarah A. Binder and Broadcast Reform Act” and Pastore amendment, S. 3637, March 25, Stephen S. Smith, Politics or Principle? Filibustering in the United States 1970, box 280, folder 9, Pearson Legislation, Legislation Series, Pearson Senate (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1997), 181; Papers; see also, among other items on this subject in the Pearson Johnson, The Laws that Shaped America; for a firsthand account of floor Papers, S. 1794, Campaign Finance Act, May 17, 1967, box 276, folder action on cloture modification, see Mondale,The Good Fight, 111–34. 36, Pearson Legislation, Legislation Series; Campaign Finance Reform, 48. Truel, “Walter F. Mondale and the Filibuster.” S. 1692, March 26, 1969, box 279, folder 31, Pearson Legislation, 49. John Anderson, Jr., interview with author, Overland Park, Legislation Series; and correspondence relating to campaign reform Kansas, June 14, 2006; see also Rogers interviews, September 3, 2006, (Federal Election Campaign Act and Federal Election Commission), and November 3, 2009; Beatty, “For the Benefit of the People.” box 127, folders 1and 9, Pearson Legislation, General Series, 1972.

312 Kansas History From an early stage of his Senate career, Pearson took an interest in what was going on in the world. The Kansas senator made many official trips abroad to Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, and he twice served as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly. Pearson agreed with long-time Senate Democratic Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana that the number of U.S. troops in Europe should be drawn down and he pursued this policy as a member of the Armed Services Committee. Photograph of the senators pictured together in October 1975 courtesy of Mrs. James B. Pearson. members of the Senate. Even before his own Republican on. The comity Pearson so much valued had faded. Party began to divide between “Goldwater” and Sharp attacks against individual senators were more “Rockefeller” factions in 1964, Pearson found he could frequent on the Senate floor. Former Republican Senate be most effective working across the political aisle. leader Howard Baker of Tennessee, a friend and ally of But sixteen years later the Senate had changed, and Pearson’s, thought Pearson, independent minded as he bipartisan collaboration was more difficult to achieve. By was, simply decided to quit. Pearson’s successor, Nancy November 1977 Pearson had decided he would not seek Landon Kassebaum Baker, recalled Pearson’s frequent reelection. He announced this early so candidates for his comments about mowing the grass at his rural home seat would have time to raise money and campaign the near Baldwin City, Kansas. “When I’m finished mowing following year. I can see what I have done,” Pearson would say. “In Much had changed in the Senate that was not to the Senate you work and work and you don’t see you Pearson’s liking. After the Watergate scandal of 1973 and have accomplished much.” Kassebaum, who worked for 1974, Pearson’s son, Bill, observed, “My father didn’t Pearson on his Washington staff from 1975 to 1976, said like the atmosphere. It wasn’t fun anymore.”51 There she could relate to Pearson’s frustration. She thought he were too many committees and subcommittees to serve “just got tired.” On his return from a conference in Europe in 1973, 51. William Pearson interview. Pearson told the author he thought a global shift to

The Career of Senator James B. Pearson 313 the right was coming, and that it would be profound.52 Senate. Their recommendations included reducing the Always prescient about political trends, Pearson seemed number of committees on which senators served, and to doubt there would be a place for him in the future. that recommendation was acted upon.55 Pearson and his He was well aware of himself as a man in the middle. wife traveled several times to Japan and Southeast Asia, In the run-up to the 1978 elections a young conservative and he served as a director of the East-West Center based Republican, Howard Wilkins, Jr., was surfacing in in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 2004 the U.S. Post Office in Kansas with backing from some oil and gas moguls Prairie Village, Kansas, was named the James B. Pearson in Wichita. This insurgency may have hoped to scare Post Office. Representative Dennis Moore, a Democrat Pearson into not running for reelection. But it had the from Johnson County, was instrumental in securing the opposite effect. Pearson made it clear to allies such as Bob designation. Williams, a long-time supporter among Wichita oilmen, In failing health, Pearson retired to Margaret’s family that he would not leave the field under fire. Relying on home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, keeping in touch with relationships he had forged in seeking the deregulation former Senate colleagues, mostly by telephone. Among of natural gas, Pearson succeeded in isolating the those colleagues were Edward Brooke, Howard Baker, would-be challengers. It was they who withdrew from and Walter Mondale. In his later years Pearson used a the field, leaving Pearson to decide his future on his own wheelchair and was reluctant to appear in public. His terms, according to Pearson’s long-time administrative contact with former Senate colleagues diminished over assistant in Washington, Jerry Waters.53 time, according to several sources. Democratic Senator As his son Bill recalled, Pearson was the kind of person John Culver of Iowa, a favorite traveling companion of who would remain deeply engaged in his professional Pearson’s, observed this in an interview, and traveled life, whether it was law or politics. The senator’s to Gloucester for one last meeting with his old friend. preoccupation with his work may have contributed Culver reported that he and Pearson “shared many to the decision made in 1966 by his wife Martha, who memorable moments and previous times together.” did not like the political life in Washington, to move Baker, who was best man in Pearson’s 1980 wedding back to the family’s suburban home in Prairie Village, and called him his “best friend in the Senate,” eventually Kansas. Her concern was with raising the Pearson’s four lost contact with Pearson. Daryl Schuster, an aide who children. With half a continent between them, the couple spent many hours driving Pearson to events in Kansas, grew apart and, after Pearson retired from the Senate, said he thought Pearson did not want to be dependent they divorced. Pearson remarried in December 1980 to on anyone and was inclined to distance himself from Margaret Lynch, a long-time Capitol Hill staffer. She those who had helped him. “Jim Pearson was harder had worked for Senator Hugh Scott of Pennsylvania, on his friends than his enemies,” Schuster said. Many the successor in the role of Republican minority leader members of Pearson’s staff shared the sense that the to Everett Dirksen of Illinois, and then later for Pearson. senator could turn on and off of those who worked for The couple lived in a house in Georgetown and at him.56 This inclination toward independence may have Pearson’s rural home near Baldwin City, where both played a part in Pearson’s handling of John Anderson’s Margaret and James Pearson served as trustees of Baker ambition for a federal judgeship. It certainly showed University, a small liberal arts college with historical ties itself in Pearson’s on-again, off-again relationship with to the Methodist Church.54 the Kansas Republican Party, and in his response to After his retirement from the Senate, Pearson prac- many of the Cold War policies of President Richard ticed law with the Washington, DC, office of LeBoeuf, Nixon. Independence seemed to suit Pearson, personally Lamb, Lieby and MacRae. He and former Democratic and politically. Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut cochaired a After several years of kidney dialysis in Gloucester, commission to study the structure and procedures of the Pearson died on January 13, 2009, at the age of eighty- eight; he was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washinton, 52. Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker and Howard Baker, interview DC. A memorial service for him was held at the First by author, Huntsville, Tennessee, January 10, 2009, author’s personal collection; Senator James B. Pearson, personal communication with 55. Secretary of the Senate, Historical Office, personal communication author, Washington, DC, March 1973, author’s personal collection. with the author, April 2008, author’s personal collection. 53. Jerry Waters, personal communication with author, January 15, 56. John Culver, interview by author, Washington, DC, April 15, 2009, author’s personal collection. 2008, author’s personal collection; John Culver to the author, April 29, 54. Senator James B. Pearson, interview by author, Washington, DC, 2008, author’s personal collection; Deryl Schuster, interview by author, April 11, 2010, author’s personal collection; William Pearson interview. Wichita, Kansas, June 21, 2007, author’s personal collection.

314 Kansas History Toward the end of Pearson’s time in the Senate, much had changed that was not to his liking. The comity Pearson so much valued had faded. Sharp attacks against individual senators were more frequent on the Senate floor. Pearson’s successor, Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker, recalled Pearson’s frequent comments about mowing the grass at his rural home near Baldwin City, Kansas. “When I’m finished mowing I can see what I have done,” Pearson would say. “In the Senate you work and work and you don’t see you have accomplished much.” He retired from the Senate in 1978 and, along with returning to the law, took up the work pictured here, mowing the grass back in Baldwin. Photograph courtesy of Mrs. James B. Pearson.

United Methodist Church in Baldwin City on April 3, This adopted son of Kansas made his mark quietly. 2009.57 His legacy is carried on by the James B. Pearson He analyzed issues himself. He worked in his deliberate Fellowship for graduates of Kansas colleges and way with people of very different persuasions to reach universities to study abroad. The fellowship was created his goals. As a United States senator from Kansas, in 1978 with an endowment of $100,000 from Pearson’s Pearson was an effective educator of his constituents, unused campaign fund. It is administered by the Kansas constantly encouraging them to consider complex issues Board of Regents. Over one hundred Kansas students on their merits. He stood for his principles, even when a have benefited from the fellowship. In addition Pearson’s political price had to be paid. Never the grandstanding name is on a fellowship in Washington to allow foreign politician, he was nonetheless a formidable campaign service officers to spend time working in state and local organizer and one of the most astute politicians Kansas government. Pearson believed U.S. diplomats needed has seen. He knew how to use issues to his benefit and to learn more about what was going on at home. “What make himself the “man in the white hat.” He won his seat this country needs,” Pearson often said, “is a Secretary of in three elections by substantial margins. He was a man State named Smith.”58 for his times,who likely would not have done well today. He was a man in the middle when the middle was where 57. Joe Holley, “Progressive Republican was a Kansas Senator,” you could get things done. His example is available to Washington Post, January 19, 2009; Jeff Myrick, “Former Senator Lauded for His Talents,” Lawrence Journal-World, April 4, 2009. young people who are interested in pursuing political 58. Woody personal communication, April 10, 2005; for leadership that puts governing ahead of ideology or information on the James B. Pearson Fellowship, see Kansas Board of Regents, “Scholarships and Grants,” http://www.kansasregents.org/ partisan advantage. scholarships_and_grants.

The Career of Senator James B. Pearson 315